2015 Editors' Choice Gold: Snow Peak GigaPower Stove

Flashback to 1999: A Japanese company hit the U.S. scene with a number of elegant products, and the tiny, powerful GigaPower Stove became a staff favorite and Editors’ Choice Award winner. Today, that stove is still tiny, still powerful, still a staff favorite, and, get this: It costs less than half what it did 15 years ago (adjusted for inflation).

To be sure, there are plenty of higher-priced stoves on the market today that boil a bit faster or thwart wind a bit better, but for hikers on a budget, the GigaPower still nails the performance-to-price ratio. In our controlled tests, it logged boil times of just under 5 minutes (for 1 liter at room temperature). Plus, it’s quiet, efficient (62 minutes of burn time for a 3.5-ounce canister), and it has a solid simmer, allowing us to gently cook soups and sauces. Bummer: Performance plummets with frozen canisters.